I did not read the previous posts in this threads, so forgive me if this already was suggested.

I wrote this somewhere on Reddit, and I think it would be good to mention here.

I think it is not necessary to implement 3D life if it is not technically feasible, we can imagine what the life on said planet would be like given only a description of the planet's properties (it is a great exercise of imagination and knowledge tbh). But in that case it would be cool to have more info, like rough atmospheric composition or the stage of civilization (if there is one), and maybe some more details, that would be generated depending on the type of system/star/planet/distance.

If there will be implemented lifeforms in the game some time on the way, i would build on the theory of Convergent Evolution. This theory works with the assumption, that life develops similar everywhere, of course with some alteration of planet variables. But with the theory, there is the possibility to take earth life and use the procedural deformation to adapt them at different values like atmosphere, gravity, etc. So no need for extraordinary varity.

Whenever I notice a gas giant with aerial multicellular life, I always like to imagine descending into its more calm upper atmosphere and seeing all kinds of bizarre forms interacting with eachother. I also wonder, if there were creatures that fed off of particulate matter in the atmosphere, basically being the "herbivores" of the planet in a sense, then would carnivores evolve alongside them? I also imagine offspring that are born instinctively ready to fly or float. It's fun to ponder these things! I think procedural ecosystems would be one of the coolest implementations in this game.

I would think that the creatures born on a gas giant would be born initially with "sack" of lighter-than-'air' gas that would keep them floating, then as they got older the sack would disappear, and they'd have to learn to fly.

Living among the stars, I find my way. I grow in strength through knowledge of the space I occupy, until I become the ruler of my own interstellar empire of sorts. Though The world was made for the day, I was made for the night, and thus, the universe itself is within my destiny.

It would be wonderful to see the creatures in SE this would be good for the gameplay, but after all we are talking about a space simulator and not a life simulator on other planets, so the creatures would be a low priority I think that before thinking about life and civilization procedural need to be developed before the simulator, because it is the priority and then later focus on the gameplay that is divided by the simulator, meanwhile best to proceed gradually before adding trees, also the evolution of the creatures in SE in my opinion is useless as a player if hardly It would be interested if there are billions of planets

the universe is made to be explored, but no one will ever visit it all

I would like to have specialization in the game, so there would be zoologist, botanist, astronaut, geologist, speleologists, negotiators, terraformers, engineers...

And I agree that evolution part would be unncecary, as players would like to know more on how the planets life conditions affected the development of the creature or plant (this can be done wit procedural generation too) , than how it's development progressed over the course of time.

Though it would be an awesome feature, it would cost the creator a lot of time and possibly other game features, and it would cost you your resources and performance.

But this is an engine, so anyone, with enough time and resources could make such game, especially now, when gaming technology is growing even more stronger.

Well if No man skys is going with this speed i think SE will get their creatures faster xD.

Nah i cant wait for this to happend. Or atleast some sort AI feature for ships. Just change ships for imported animated species and you get something nice. But unless Space Engineer gets the KGB to steal the procedual moving code from No man skys i am afraid not happening.

Anyway amazing idea really looking forward this. Want to see some good dragons flying around not that GoT depressing stuff.

How about we have a secondary program from SE to build organisms/ecosystems. Alternatively, seeing as how this would take a few years to implement, there could be some way to import creatures from Thrive.

Procedural 'life' would be immensely brilliant indeed and Artificial Life is a huge interest of mine so it would be a dream to see it in the beautiful and realistic context of Space Engine.

However.. Space Engine is primarily just that - an engine. The way I see it, it would make most sense to priritise those things which are necessary in creating a realistic working Universe on a large scale and then building more complex, smaller scale simulations on top of the engine.

Simulated Life, especially the likes of creatures is a huge project in and of itself and it isn't what Space Engine is primarily about.

A much more pressing (but still partially seperate) system would be dynamic weather systems. Currently, the weather is the same across the whole face of any given planet. Localised weather systems would be a much more relevant priority - that is - after the basics of world and interstellar generation are fully accomplished.

Obviously we all want these things right now; we all want to explore an unimaginably huge realistic Universe with all the bells and whistles, in God mode.

But whilst something akin to that may be makeable - it isn't one project it is many projects which would need to be made to cohere with the other systems.

In light of this, I propose that a better suggestion would be to ensure that Vladimir and his cronies make it easy for other developers to create systems such as dynamic weather and possibly even ALife which can integrate seamlessly with the main engine.

A personal computer may have a hard time rendering entire procedural biospheres on a scale like Space Engine's universe may require. However, the program may benefit from using the memory size and processing power of supercomputer web servers.

I would think that a game using Space Engine's simulator would be rather expansive and complex. To add interactive biospheres to the game would not only make the game even more complex, it would inevitably increase the processing power and memory size required to run the game on a compatible operating system. This would change the system requirements needed to install and effectively run the game.

The programming data and processing required to create interactive biospheres for each habitable world in this simulator would be so complex and large that it would be a daunting and difficult task.

In my opinion, I would be satisfied with having just simple grass and rocks on planets. You guys have to understand that this is being made by just one guy. He isn't a miracle worker, even though he's made perhaps the greatest game ever created :).

Of course, if the plants on the planet were effected by things like solar radiation/tidal locking/proximity to water/atmosphere composition, that would be great.

i think this would be a step too far, the game is more about amazing sights that you can find in the universe. Sure it would be great to go down to every planet and have life and other things such as plants and trees to add to the immersion but, just think how many galaxies there are and how many potential planets with life there are....would break the game i think